Tutorial – Quick and Easy Augmented Reality from SketchUp/3DMax etc

Creating your own Augmented Reality is, thanks to ARTAG, staggeringly easy. Yet behind the simplicity lays a serious potential for both the hobbyist, local government use and the professional practice.

The only requirements are a webcam, printer and the ability to export models in either .obj, .wrl or .ase formats. As such if you have a model in SketchUp, 3DMax or any other common 3D package you can now view it on your desk using Augmented Reality.

Step 1

Download ARTag and unzip the contents to a folder. We generally use the desktop for easy access. Note the SDK kit is currently required as the demo on the main ARTag site has timed out. The contents are however mostly the same.

Step 2

Open your newly created folder – in our case under its default name of ‘artag_rev2k_sdk_windows_1207’ and navigate to the ‘patterns’ directory.

Step 3

Open both base0.gif and toolbar0_7.gif as pictured to the right. Print our each of these .gifs making sure that your print options are set to ‘scale to fit media’ with either A4 or A3 paper (or your standard printers paper size).

Lay both these printouts side by side on your desk or workspace.

Step 4

Making sure your webcam is plugged in navigate to the ‘compiled_demos’ folder and double click on 3d_augmentations_usb.exe. This will launch a window in which the view from your webcam is displayed. If you move your cam towards the two marker sheets you printed out a series of 3D models will appear – as pictured below:

This is your first example of Augmented Reality, all we need now is to import our own objects.

Step 5

The objects that load on the marker grid are defined by a text file – setup_artag_3d.cfg. Open this file in a text editor such as Notepad.

Pictured left we have highlighted the main line in setup_artag_3d.cfg. This defines the file to display on the main marker sheet, in the case of the first demonstration a fish.

To load your own objects you simply change this line to your files name and extension. For the movie below we made a simple windfarm in 3D Studio Max and exported both the textures (in .jpg format) and the file in .ASE format to the ‘compiled_demos’ folder. We then edited fish.obj to in our case windfarm.ase and saved the file.

Relaunching 3d_augmentations_usb.exe loads the changed file as illustrated in the Youtube movie below:

It is worth experimenting with a variety of objects with the system – a 3D Earth model works particularly well and has obvious applications for the teaching of geography in a classroom environment, especially if you print out the marker sheet in A1 size.

As requested we have uploaded a sample .obj to load into the directory as a test for replacing the supplied 3d models in the demo. Download and unzip to the compiled demos directory the following file Globe.zip (542K).

The zip contains three files – Globe.obj, Globe.mtl and the texture in .jpg format – is this case a panoramic image.

Replace fish.obj with Globe.obj as per Step 5 and you should see a globe panorama on the main base0 maker sheet.

i have tried all of the file type conventions, .ase, .obj, .wrl, with no success. are textures required for the models, or will a plain sketchup model do? when i replace the fish with my geometry, the car and pacwoman load but that is all. do .jpeg suffice, or do i need to create a .mtl, and how do i do that? i am very excited about this, so any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks, guys, for the intro to ARTag! This is working reasonably well for me, although my 3D images are pretty flickery compared to yours. It may be the SLI graphic card in this machine–I want to try it on another box.

i think the flickering is to do with the quality of the webcam – mine is a £10 bought on the internet job, and it has problems maintaining a focus as you move things around.The ones that artag use are serious 3megapixel cameras, and I suspect that digital urban has an above average bit of kit too…trying to get a model in with some lighting and animation – will let you know how it goes…

Hello guys,I made this experiment today and it works with the 3D fish.If you want to check out http://atilu.blogspot.com But I can’t export my sketchup drawings to .obj files.If you help me I’m very pleased.Meanwhile, Globe sample works with my system.Thanks.

Thanks for this info. Does anyone know what the proses is for doing this with a mobile phone and internet?I want to send my girlfriend a “printed birthday card” with a spinning 3d hart 🙂I know how QRcodes work is it the same proses.

Thanks FOR YOUR TUROEIAL I have a problem when I want to use my own objects I create 3d object containing material ,when I export .obj and mtl file and I want to replace with fish.obj I see the object without material .may I know what software you have used to create globe object

hican i put an animated texture or video using ths software.BuildAR n ARive doesnt support it seems.i want a video to run on a screen in my AR demo.i hav made d camera n all objects including d screen in 3ds max.i hav also made d image sequence n d video tht has to run on d screen.i hav applied d video as an animated texture on d screen material.but whn i m exporting in .ive format n opening in ARive n BuildAR d video image sequence is coming only as a single jpg.can u help me out?